Posts tagged iPhone

My ‘super cuts’ highlights packages for major tech product launches have become increasingly popular. In summer 2017, Mobile World Live commissioned me to produce video packages for the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and the Apple iPhone X smartphone launches.

Standing now on another packed commuter train, I glance up to see a carriage full of people staring down at their smartphones. In fewer places is it more evident how mobile technology has become central to our lives.

It’s no wonder then that smartphone launches from the likes of Apple or Samsung attract significant attention from the media as well as the public, all eager to learn about the newest devices and their features.

That why quick-turnaround highlights packages – like those I’ve been producing over the last couple of years – have become very popular online and shareable on social media.

The full Apple press conference clocked-in at just under two hours, the Samsung Unpacked event at just under sixty minutes. Yet, shortly after each event, I’d edited and voiced crisp broadcast-spec packages capturing the most important moments and the energy from the entire event.

Similar items I’ve produced for media outlets have performed very well, capitalising on speed of production and the thirst for information on the latest mobile hardware.

Among the topics I cover in this series of Rip Off Britain: Live on BBC1 is speech recognition. In Tuesday’s show I went to Liverpool to investigate how viewers are talking to their tech to help make their everyday lives easier.

It was no surprise, however, to find that many I spoke with were initially sceptical about the effectiveness of speech recognition. But I had a hunch that their lack of confidence was misplaced, with judgements on poor comprehension based on older generations of the technology.

Our day of filming in and around Liverpool proved my point: I found that Apple’s intelligent personal assistant Siri was better than even I was at comprehending commands, irrespective of accent or background noise.

Speech recognition technology – and Siri is far from the only or even the best example at present – has now reached a level of useful maturity. What is needed next to help more to benefit from it is further accessibility and behavioural change.

September is one of the busiest periods in the technology calendar as manufacturers race to announce and release the consumer products they hope will make their Christmas a happy one.

Not only a great time of year to be working in technology but a great time to be reporting on it too. Over the last few weeks I’ve joined the technology desk at International Business Times UK to report on breaking news from Apple, Samsung, Sony and more.

New smartphone announcements by Apple are a highlight for many tech-watchers but, frankly, they do go on a bit. I produced an extremely cut-down version of the Apple press conference revealing everything you need to know in roughly three minutes – saving you about an hour and forty minutes of your life.

In the feature I speak to key mobile newsgathering practitioners from BBC, Sky News and Trinity Mirror to learn the role of mobile in the newsroom. Contributors (to whom I’m incredibly grateful) include Nick Garnett, Marc Settle, Harriet Hadfield and Alison Gow.

This came off the back of participating in MoJoCon 2015 in Dublin, the first international conference of its kind for mobile journalism and smartphone filmmaking.

Mojocon proved to the industry that mobile newsgathering – in all its forms – is now a primetime tool. It’s no longer a case of ‘why would you use a smartphone for video/audio/broadcast?’, it’s simply ‘why the the hell wouldn’t you?’.

Hosted by the Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ and attended by journalists and filmmakers from across the world, MoJoCon was a celebration of smartphone creativity and newsgathering ingenuity. It was the brainchild of mobile journalism pioneer and activist Glen Mulcahy.

The stories I covered were both Apple-focused but, it’s fair to say, at different ends of the good news spectrum.

First up was the iPhone 6 and 6 plus launch along with the long-awaited announcement of an Apple Watch. Apple product launches are always big news, but this year’s phones were equally big to match.

The ‘iCloud Celebrity Photo Hack’ (or “The Fappening”, as it has also come to be known) is an altogether different news item, made more difficult because there’s a lot that’s still unknown about how private photos of celebrities came to be leaked in the first place – not least, whether Apple’s iCloud is even culpable.

It’s that day again. You know, the one where otherwise sensible people go gadget crazy, queueing overnight and around the block to be the first to get their fingerprints on the new iPhone.

Love it or loath it, and Apple’s products seem increasingly to polarise opinion, the annual iPhone release is a big day in most technology journalists’s diaries, mine included.

Yesterday I recorded a quick interview for ITV’s Daybreak and then first thing on launch day today I went hands-on to present both an iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c unboxing video for O2.

There’s no denying that they’re both accomplished and stylish handsets; as an iPhone 5 owner I was surprised at just how taken I was with the coloured polycarbonate-backed iPhone 5c. On the iPhone 5s the Touch ID fingerprint tech worked very well for me, and I’m interested to see how app developers will exploit the M7 motion coprocessor at 64-bit A7 processor.

On the day of the iPhone 5 announcement I was appearing on various BBC local radio stations (and some commercial ones too) throughout the UK talking about the unveiling, offering my insight into which new features it might include.

Apple’s annual announcement of its latest and greatest iPhone generates more tweets, posts, column inches and airtime than any other consumer technology product launch.

On air I also discussed some research carried out by gadget recycling website cashinyourgadgets.co.uk revealing what we do (or rather don’t do) with our old gadgets after we’ve upgraded. I’m as bad as anybody with several old laptops, mobile phones and cameras slowly gathering rust in my drawers contributing to the estimated £1 billion of old, unused tech cluttering up our cupboards in the UK alone.

Listen to an excerpt from one of the interviews where I chat with Tony Fisher from BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester:

Earlier this month I was commissioned by CNET to write a couple of features on making high-def movies with a smartphone.

The first of those features, How to make HD movies on your iPhone 4 or 4S, went live yesterday and right now I’m working on an equivalent how to make movies feature for Android based on the Samsung Galaxy S3 – watch this space.

In my iPhone feature I mention recently launched service called Newsflare. As mobile journalism (‘MoJo’) is a particular interest of mine, I find the Newflare concept very interesting indeed. The Newsflare app lets you upload video footage from your iPhone, either on-spec or in response to an ‘assignment’, which Newsflare will then try to sell to a media outlet for you (obviously taking a cut of your cash for their troubles).

I haven’t submitted anything yet to Newsflare, but I’m certainly curious to give it a go. I’m not at all convinced that it poses a serious threat to professional video journalists and cameramen but I suspect it could lead to more of the ‘good enough’ shots of breaking new stories airing before professional news crews arrive to capture broadcast quality footage.